


Relationship

by 50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret



Category: Cinderella (1950), Cinderella (Fairy Tale), Cinderella - All Media Types, Disney Princesses
Genre: Be Careful What You Wish For, Could Be Canon, Crush at First Sight, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, No Sex, No Smut, Not A Fix-It, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Relationship(s), Sorry Not Sorry, Tags May Change, Unhealthy Relationships, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-01 01:39:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15132275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret/pseuds/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret
Summary: Henry and Ella aren't ready for a relationship but they're married anyways. This story is not graphic but it does feature and follow the aftermath of long-term financial, mental, physical, and emotional abuse that started in childhood and ended in early adulthood. If you're not yet a teen, even if you are a big kid, this probably won't entertain you and might upset you because while it isn't graphic or abusive it certainly isn't happily ever after either: it IS a semi-realistic depiction of a complicated relationship with many problems between two well-meaning and good but ultimately out-of-their-depth people who are doing their best, only to arguably find that their best while good enough, is certainly not as good as they'd hoped.





	1. Chapter 1

For Ella and Henry's honeymoon, they go to his vacation castle. They hold hands in the carriage for the whole ride, smiling at each-other. This is perfect. This is her dream come true, literally. She's dreamed of this moment so many times. Her husband's hand around hers. Ella sings a song lightly and Henry sings along off-key. Her heart feels like it is flying with her bird friends. 

The vacation castle is beautiful. It's beside the grey sea and it is surrounded by waterfalls. 

"Do you like it?" Henry asks.

All she can do is nod.

~~~

They spend that first day running across the beach, splashing at each other and laughing. Ella is about to suggest they go to the well to wash off carefully and dry in the sun before going in when Henry says "Race you back to the castle" and takes off. It's fun and she runs with it. He wins by a wide margin but neither of them really care. As they're walking away, Ella sees the sandy footprints they leave and wonders who will have to clean it up. Not her. Someone who will be paid for it. But still. There is a sour taste in her mouth. She turns "We should clean up after ourselves."

"Relax." He smiles at her. "It's our honeymoon. A servant will get it." 

She sighs "Alright, Henry." 

 


	2. Henry

On the journey back to the main palace, Henry feels empty in a way he can't describe. His life is full. He should be happy. He's a Prince. His duties are going well. He's married to a beautiful, smart, sweet woman. He's never felt more alone. She falls asleep in the carriage and her head rests against his shoulder. He resists the urge to throw her off. He wishes they hadn't just honeymooned in some glorified summer-home. They should have gone somewhere new.

~~~

The day after he gets home, he has official duties to see to for almost the entire day. When he's finally done, he finds Ella waiting for him in their room. "I missed you." She tells him. It should be nice but he finds himself tensing to carry the weight those words bring. He misses that first date, walking through the gardens. He misses his honeymoon. 

 

~~~

He gets a few hours to himself one day and he decides, to hell with it, he's going to spend it practicing fencing. He immerses himself in the rhythm and strategy and movement of the practice. He feels alive and unburdened while he is fencing. The world fades away and it is only the competition that matters. That, and that from the stands, his beautiful princess is cheering him on. 

 


	3. Ella

Ella has been trying to relax and it is actually very nice here. She can spend the day watching Henry fence, or eating good food or, some days just crying and napping periodically about all the small horrors she swept away over the years as another part of life. She hadn't really understood how afraid she always was until she finally got the chance to breathe, here with Henry. He holds her against his chest one night and she takes shivering breathes and tells him everything. How her father had died when she was little. How she had lost her own name to a parody of itself. They had called her "Ella" a few times as a joke, a full-circle parody, just to see the confusion there at having it back.

"What if I'm nobody anymore, Henry?" She can't seem to cry, but she feels like it. She feels like the whole earth has dropped away and Henry is the only thing holding her up and together and she'll disassemble into shards like that first slipper if he lets go.

"You are _somebody._ " He promised. "I wouldn't have gone looking all across the country for nobody." In the dim light of their room, he looks more like a prince than she has ever seen him. His eyes are intense and determined. His hair is just beginning to loosen from it's styling in an honest, commanding, beautiful sort of way. His young face is caught and silhouetted like a tragic memory in the dying sun. He can't be real but somehow he is, and he's holding her. 

"Promise?"

"I promise, Ella. I promise I promise." He murmurs into her hair. "Have some faith in me."

A high-strung tenuous calm settles in the air. "It was all so miserable." she says with a bitter laugh, because it was. It was a nightmare. She was eight years old when her father died and nobody loved her anymore. Lady Tremaine told her as much. It was true, and it helped her give up quicker and do what was asked of her. She hadn't wanted to be a servant at first. She'd just sat in the bed and refused to get up or talk or anything. Why bother? Her father was gone. Tremaine had slapped her when she ignored the demand to clean up for the third time.

"Your father may have coddled you but I. Will. Not. I'm not your mother. I don't love you. No-one ever will. If you don't pull your weight, I have no reason to keep you here."

Now, with Henry smiling down at her, holding her close, she knows that was not true. Henry loves her. 

 

~~~

 

She spills her drink at dinner and gets up to clean it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She says, but she knows what the problem will be by now. She knows what the problem always is when this happens.

"Oh, Ella, let the servants get it, alright? It's just a spilled drink."

"We make plenty of messes, and we'll have children soon to clean up after. I just want to clean this one myself."

"So you  _want_ to be a servant? Is being my Princess that horrible?"

"What? No I just--"

Henry sighs

"You don't complain when I clean up after  _you_." 

"Ella, darling, that's...affection, and I know you. I know that's how you show you love me, and I love you too but I..."

"I love myself as well." She says. "Let me do this."

"You make no sense. How can you say you love yourself then give yourself meaningless work?"

"Fine. I'm sorry." 

Henry smiles and sighs in relief "It's alright, my love, you're still adjusting."

~~~~

They tease eachother. That's part of what makes Henry perfect it's just..."Glorified maid to Princess of the Kingdom. Not bad, eh?" 

They're at a state dinner so Ella just laughs it off. He doesn't mean it badly, but she isn't ready to joke like that. 

 

~~~

She tells him later, that she didn't like the joke. He apologizes and presents her with a bouquet.

 


	4. Save

It's awful to see Ella still trapped in the past. She is with him now and it still hasn't really caught up to her mind. She doesn't seem to think of herself as a princess. She is still sad. She focuses on little details instead of the big picture. No matter how often he assures her that things are different, tells her that she needs to think as one who in line to rule by his side, she snaps at him, or worse, nods quietly in a way that says she is pretending to agree. She always goes quiet at some point in the conversation, and after that all she will do was nod along. That was what she was doing now.

"Ella, please just answer me."

"I...have been answering you."

"Then answer me honestly."

Her eyes widen and dart around the way they always do when she's nervous or caught in a lie. "Honestly, I don't understand, Henry. Sorry."

" _What_  don't you understand?" Finally.

"Why _should_  I focus on the big picture. That just sounds like some imaginary land you go to when you don't want to focus on the real world, and that's nice, but you have to wake up and deal with it eventually."

"The big picture  _is_ the real world, Ella."

She nods. 

"No. Tell me what you mean...I...I want to hear this."

"Well..." She pauses to gulp down a deep breath. "I...the big picture, what is the big picture but a bunch of vague ideas...I mean, the details, the moment, that's what's real. That's what's here. I just...I'm already living my fantasy...I don't need another one, do I?" she laughs awkwardly.

"Okay well, that's...What I mean when I say the big picture is, those ideas, those are ideas that need to be implemented across the country. It's about the whole...world really. It's more efficient than helping one person at a time."

"Yeah...That...." She nods and she seems to mean it this time because he can see she's really thinking "that actually makes a lot of sense. I'll work on it, Henry, I promise.

Another goal met.

~~~

He's so in love with her. She's wise in ways he probably won't ever be; in ways he hopes to never be. Her hurt has given her first hand knowledge of something that is somehow real, and she burns with it in every word and gesture. Just being near her, it is like he is a puppet made of wax and she is flame and he is melting. He is experiencing reality the only way he can, just by being near her. Even as much as it can get in the way, that attention to detail keeps him grounded. She makes sure he is presentable before he goes out to make a formal address or host a ball. She is his embassy to the land of reality. 

 


End file.
